Laws governing bankruptcy have been altered to the further advantage of large corporations and financial institutions. In the United States, a wealthy individual can use bankruptcy to shield his fortune from investments that have gone badly, and a corporation can use bankruptcy to abrogate labor contracts. But former students who have borrowed for their education and are having difficulty repaying what they owe, or homeowners who are caught in the downdraft of a major recession and cannot meet their mortgage payments, are not allowed to reorganize their debts under bankruptcy. Here again, the
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